Damn, Who Brought This Hot Potato!

Lu Changsheng skillfully wiped the divine sense imprint off the scale and tossed it into his Storage Jade Box, which was already nearly stuffed to the brim, before letting out a long, heavy sigh.

These two thousand years of frantic scavenging and "transcending" had not only allowed him to accumulate a terrifying amount of wealth—enough to buy up a good portion of the barren Primordial Land—but had also enabled him to absorb a massive quantity of Heavenly Dao Merit.

As for him now.

Although his cultivation remained stuck at the peak of the True Immortal stage, it was only because he had deliberately suppressed it, refusing to poke through that window-paper layer.

Yet, the source of Great Dao Merit within his dantian had already grown to resemble a blinding, scorching sun.

In fact, the faint outline of an illusory golden wheel had already begun to manifest behind his head. It was a sign that his merit had become so dense that it was on the verge of manifesting as a celestial phenomenon!

If I wait for this Merit Golden Wheel to fully solidify, even if I don't walk around with the Mysterious Yellow Shield, I doubt those Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals would dare to touch a single hair on my head, Lu Changsheng calculated to himself.

He stood up, preparing to leave this immortal mountain ruin.

Suddenly.

The Cowardly Immortal Vine wrapped around his wrist twitched violently.

This tremor was far more intense than any previous time it had detected treasure or corpses, and it even carried a hint of unconcealable fear.

"Something's up?"

Lu Changsheng immediately stopped in his tracks, and the light curtain of the Mysterious Yellow Shield instantly expanded, shielding him so tightly that not even a breeze could pass through.

He looked in the direction the Cowardly Immortal Vine was pointing.

Deep in the heart of the valley, far in the distance, a faint yet incredibly noble aura was breathing in and out, flickering like a dying flame.

Mixed within this aura were the world-destroying Laws of Thunder and a nauseating, extreme stench.

That was the death aura that descended when karmic backlash and the Five Decays of Heaven and Man took hold!

"What terrifying pressure... This is definitely not some ordinary Golden Immortal or run-of-the-mill Primordial Unity Golden Immortal."

Lu Changsheng's brows locked together, and a flicker of struggle crossed his golden eyes.

According to his principles as a practitioner of the Dao of Cowardice, his first reaction upon encountering an entity of unknown level that radiated such extreme danger should be to turn around and run, then set up a concealment array and play dead.

But the smooth sailing of his wealth-gathering over the past two thousand years, combined with the confidence provided by his Great Dao Merit, allowed his greed to ultimately outweigh his fear.

"An entity capable of emitting such pressure—if I could transcend it, or... strike a deal with it, how rich would the rewards be?"

Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth.

"The bold are stuffed to death, while the timid starve to death. With the Mysterious Yellow Shield, as long as it isn't a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal in its prime, I should be able to protect myself."

He applied three top-tier Breath Concealment Talismans to himself, completely suppressing his aura. Like a formless ghost, he crept along the edge of the deep valley, inch by inch.

The closer he got to the heart of the valley, the more hair-raising the environment became.

The valley, which should have been teeming with life, had now turned into a dead zone.

All the vegetation had not only withered but had melted into pools of foul-smelling black sludge.

Even the laws in the void were emitting distorted, mournful cries under the erosion of this terrifying death aura.

Shielded by the Mysterious Yellow Shield, Lu Changsheng endured the death aura that was strong enough to corrode the physical body of a True Immortal, finally arriving at the very core of the valley.

When he saw the scene in the valley, even though he had mentally prepared himself, he couldn't help but gasp, his scalp tingling.

In a massive crater in the center of the valley lay a terrifying giant beast as large as a mountain.

The beast had the head of a dragon, antlers of a deer, eyes of a lion, back of a tiger, waist of a bear, scales of a snake, hooves of a horse, and the tail of a cow.

Its entire body should have been shimmering with majestic, five-colored auspicious light, but by now, those lights had been completely swallowed by thick, impenetrable black karma.

Large patches of its scales had fallen off, revealing horrific wounds that reached the bone.

No blood flowed from the wounds; only dark gray death aura churned within them.

Even more shocking was a fatal sword mark in the center of its skull that had nearly split its head in two, with purple lightning faintly raging within the wound.

"A Qilin... and a Royal Qilin with pure bloodline at that!"

Hiding behind a giant rock, Lu Changsheng relied on his two thousand years of battlefield-looting experience to instantly recognize the origin of this giant beast.

Moreover, judging by the pressure it still radiated even while on the verge of death, this was definitely a super-powerful entity at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal level! It was likely a direct blood relative of the First Qilin!

"A Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal..."

Lu Changsheng's breathing grew rapid.

An existence like this, if it were out in the world, could blow away a crowd of True Immortals like him just by sneezing.

But now, it lay here like a dead dog, its soul on the verge of scattering.

"What a pity. For such a powerful being, the karma has already invaded its true spirit."

"Even if I were to pour all my Great Dao Merit into it, I couldn't save it. At most, I could only help it dissolve a bit of the surface Sha Qi; I couldn't even help it reincarnate and cultivate again."

Lu Changsheng shook his head, feeling a twinge of regret in his heart.

Since it was beyond saving, he would just have to wait until it was completely dead before going down to loot the corpse. The storage treasures of a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal would surely contain enough riches to make him drool with envy.

Just as Lu Changsheng was calculating how to safely loot the body, the massive Qilin in the deep pit suddenly let out a faint wheeze.

Its enormous eyes, which had already been closed, struggled to open a narrow slit.

Those eyes, which should have been filled with majesty, now held nothing but endless gloom and despair.

It did not look toward the direction where Lu Changsheng was hiding, but instead strained to tuck its massive head beneath its own belly.

There, a faint, five-colored radiance was flickering with great difficulty.

That was...

An egg.

A Qilin Egg, no larger than a water vat, its surface covered in profound innate Dao patterns!

However, the state of this egg was equally grim.

The karmic debt on the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal Qilin had inevitably spread to this egg.

The five-colored light on the surface of the shell was being eroded, strand by strand, by black death energy.

If nothing changed, the life force within this egg would be completely extinguished by the karmic debt in less than a hundred years.

"My Lord, I am not reconciled..."

The Zenith Heaven Qilin let out a sigh of extreme sorrow.

Although its voice was weak, it echoed through the valley like muffled thunder.

"The Dragon Phoenix conspired... to ambush my Lord... and now they seek to sever the direct bloodline of my Qilin Clan..."

"How unjust is the Heavenly Dao..."

Two lines of blood-red tears streamed from the Zenith Heaven Qilin's eyes. It knew that it was beyond saving; it could not even preserve this last sliver of its true spirit.

Its only regret was that this direct descendant, which had condensed all its heart's blood and carried the future hope of the Qilin Clan, would also perish with it in this desolate place, turning into ashes.

Hidden behind a giant rock, Lu Changsheng felt a slight stir in his heart upon hearing these words.

An egg of the Qilin Clan's direct bloodline?

This was a hot potato!